On the face of it, Paul’s letter to Philemon looks like a private, personal appeal and yet, there it appears as a public instruction in Scripture. Given that Paul includes others in his address and particularly the whole church community meeting in a home suggests he intended it as such. What is it about Paul’s appeal to Philemon that makes it relevant not just to him but to the wider church family in Colosse and to the church through the generations? I would suggest that it is these words in verses 15-16:
“15 Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever— 16 no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord.
These words change Onesimus’ status. Or rather, they describe the change in status that has come about because Onesimus has a new relationship with God and this affects his relationship to God’s people. These are instructions not just for Philemon about how to welcome Onesimus back into his home but for the church on how to welcome him into the household of faith. It’s important for us to pick up on that. The Gospel, because it changes our relationship to God changes our relationship to one another.
This message was important in the lightbulb moment that kicked off the abolition slavery movement. Wilberforce, Newton, Wesley, Clarkson and others realised that you could not recognise someone as a brother in Christ and then treat them as a slave still. I’ve heard it suggested that Onesimus would still have had to work as a slave but I think this unlikely. You see, as Paul wrote, he would have had in mind the parable Jesus told of the prodigal son or rather two lost sons. What becomes clear in that parable is that you are either part of the family as a slave/servant or as a son. Onesimus was now a son and a brother.
In other words, this letter is even bigger than an instruction on church relationships. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul had given these instructions to slaves:
“you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.”
Here is an insistence that work will be rewarded, one way or the other. Then having told slaves to obey masters, he writes to masters:
“masters, treat your slaves in the same way”
There was to be an equality, a reciprocity between the two. Note that I’ve cited Ephesians here writing to the Colossian church which Philemon was a leader in, Paul says:
“Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.”
That’s not as explicitly clear, though I don’t think we can ignore the play on “Father in Heaven” or the implication of “what is right and fair”. However, put together Philemon, Colossians and Ephesians, it seems clear to me that for Paul, there was no place for the category of slave in the family of God.
These three, revolutionary letters were world transforming, they set out the argument for abolishing slavery.
Faithroots 